New Acoustic Amp - Mesa Boogie Rosette

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by Martin Maniac

Different strokes for different folks I suppose, but I play a standard E chord and the Rosette shakes the room to the point I don't want any more low end.

Yes different strokes, and what works for one, may not work for another. As for the low end, where it's most evident is in the big rooms I play, where the throw of the cab and drivers combined come into play. And my guitars are many times tuned below the standard E with a root note of C#. A big downside of the Schertler is the lack of parametric EQ, so I use a Empress ParaEQ which has an adjustable Q when dialing my guitar sounds, I have no problem there with the vocal channels. Schertler really got their designs right when it comes to vocals, and the mic channels have real 48 volt phantom.

I pretty much define the term working musician and I get thrown into so many different sound scenarios that I always try to use equipment that gets the job done. I routinely carry three levels of PA system with me when I'm on the road...

Smallest - Jam 200, small intimate venues where the focus is mainly on my singer songwriter softer songs 10 to 30 people very small room unless I'm slaving into a bigger PA

Medium - Jam 400, medium sized rooms 30 to 100 people (sometimes more but typically I slave into something bigger). This rig works for about 80% of my gigs and the only change to the rig in the last few years is I swapped out the tuner on my pedal board (because sometimes the mini TC polytune wouldn't recognize the lower notes correctly), and one drive pedal (Fulldrive 3), that works better for the current pickup system that's in my J45 (B-Band XOM 2.2).

Large - Mackie powered system 2 X HD1221 cabs, and a 1501 sub (when needed with a Allen Heath Zed or QSC touchmix), 50 to a few hundred people. For it's size this system is ridiculously powerful with a good throw.

Anything bigger I make the client provide sound.

Yesterday I played in a venue (pictured below) that was a nursery with lots of little areas and my Schertler worked perfectly in this pretty large space. Notice that I have two condenser microphones one for vocals and one to give air to my guitar sound when I want it. Both mics require 48 volt phantom. In this type of gig I use those mics on my guitar and vocals in channels 1 and 2, another direct channel for my guitar pedal board, a channel for my porch-board, and a channel for break music (fed by the ipod setup on the stand). I also take the second channel of my pedal board into a small 18 watt "Dirty Girl" amplifier, and when I slip into my more bluesy open-tuned slide guitar songs I add the guitar amp tone to the mix. There is no way the Rosette could be used in this scenario.

By the time I started playing there was at least 100 people in this room...

[troggg]

Looks like a nice scene and also looks like you're loaded for bear.

[Yamaha Man]

I'm not going to argue the point. The Rosette works great for me as I'm basically going to be using it for recording at home. I bought it mainly for the preamp and EQ sections to record directly into my computer, I'm getting results beyond my expectations. Occasionally I may use it at the senior center gigs, but not always. So it works for me.

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by Martin Maniac

I'm not going to argue the point. The Rosette works great for me as I'm basically going to be using it for recording at home. I bought it mainly for the preamp and EQ sections to record directly into my computer, I'm getting results beyond my expectations. Occasionally I may use it at the senior center gigs, but not always. So it works for me.

And for what you're using it for it is probably exceptional!!! The EQ section and the Reverb are excellent in the Rosette so it should make for some great recordings!

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by troggg

Looks like a nice scene and also looks like you're loaded for bear.

that made me smile

[Marty C]

At first I didn’t see the condenser mic for the guitar. What are those mics?

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by Marty C

At first I didn’t see the condenser mic for the guitar. What are those mics?

Shure Beta 87s, they are my favorite. My girlfriend gave me a Neumann KMS105 for Christmas a few years back and I prefer these over that mic, and they cost about half of what that mic cost!

[agedhorse]

Originally Posted by rockabilly69

Shure Beta 87s, they are my favorite. My girlfriend gave me a Neumann KMS105 for Christmas a few years back and I prefer these over that mic, and they cost about half of what that mic cost!

You do know the B-87 does not require 48 volts for phantom right? They will work perfectly well on P-12 (12V phantom) as they are spec'd for anything between 9V and 52V.

This might give you additional options down the road using these mics, as they are a great option in the condenser field.

[Yamaha Man]

Originally Posted by rockabilly69

And for what you're using it for it is probably exceptional!!! The EQ section and the Reverb are excellent in the Rosette so it should make for some great recordings!

Absolutely, another plus is that it has two channels, one optimized for vocals, the other for guitar....I'm planning on using a Shure SM7b mic for vocals.

[troggg]

Originally Posted by Martin Maniac

Absolutely, another plus is that it has two channels, one optimized for vocals, the other for guitar....I'm planning on using a Shure SM7b mic for vocals.

Not sure you're correct that one channel is optimized for vocals other than the fact that it accepts an XLR input. The controls are exactly the same for that channel as are the EQ figures on the legending.

I've spent the last few hours trying to come up with a good demo. My first plan was to video myself playing and singing with my long-dormant Zoom Q2HD camera/recorder (it's got a big stereo golf ball looking mic for hi fi). The small hang was I haven't used that thing for years and found that I'd misplaced the USB cable, meaning I wouldn't be able to download anything to PC. I also couldn't find that little thingamajiggy that holds SD cards and connects to USB. Grrrrrrr. But wait, that wasn't enough, I noticed the top part of my tripod was missing -- the part where you screw in the camera. OK, then!

So much for that plan.

My next instinct was to explore Martin Maniac's passion of using Rosette's Line Out feed to record. That would of course be something I've never tried previously. Rosette give you three choices: just the guitar, just the vocal (or a guitar internal mic for example), or both chanels. I sorted it all out and gave it a try.

Maybe I'm just used to hearing things coming out of the amp, but the Line Out feed seemed to lack that slight but meaningful tinge of psychedelia that the amp's circuitry and speakers provide. I will try again with a few adjustments.

I'm also getting used to my new imperative of swallowing the mic (after 3 solid years in the studio) so my vocal technique is very much a work in progress. Focusing on it was causing me to forgot words and song order and so on.

Unfortunately these first attempts were nothing I'd consider valuable to anyone.

I ordered the Zoom USB cable and will continue to try and come up with something suitably tasty.

[Yamaha Man]

XLR input and Phantom power for the mic on channel 1.

I use the Channel 1 XLR direct out for recording my guitar and get great results. I then go into a Focusrite 18i8 interface, into the computer, into Sonar, then Adobe Audition for final editing. Mix to MP3, upload to SoundCloud and I'm done.

[Yamaha Man]

Another thing to check is your source switches located above your direct output XLR connectors. They should be set to the post EQ setting, (flip them all up )

[troggg]

Next go round I'll use the separate outs instead of the combined out so I can normalize volumes here and there.

Funny, a few months ago I was all about going for recorded perfection and wasn't even thinking about playing live. Since then, I've been all about being-in-the-moment live and forgot what it feels like to go for perfection!

I also should really get someone to help me with the EQ as I talked about earlier.

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by agedhorse

You do know the B-87 does not require 48 volts for phantom right? They will work perfectly well on P-12 (12V phantom) as they are spec'd for anything between 9V and 52V.

This might give you additional options down the road using these mics, as they are a great option in the condenser field.

Yes I do know that, as I've used them successfully with lower phantom voltages, as I also have the Schertler Jam 200 which has 10V and 24V phantom, but I like true 48v phantom on my gear as I have other items I use that definately sound starved when trying to use less than 48V.

[varmonter]

I have an aer 60 3 .why would I want a rosette
over the aer? I've watched some YouTube vids
On this and other than the mesa one I wasn't
All that impressed( the sweet water demo was quite meh)
So talk me into it.